Indians receive around 12 fraudulent messages per day, over 93,000 telecom scams reported so far

“I was defrauded six months ago while trying to rent a house on an online platform. A person posing as an Indian Army officer, with a fake ID and documents, cheated me of Rs 61,000 on the pretext of renting. He asked for my phone number and sent me a QR code. Then, he sent me Rs 1 to my account to gain my trust. After that, my hard-earned money was deducted from my account. Now, all I can do is wait for the police to crack the case and return my money,” said Kunal Kishore, a 26-year-old fraud victim from Ranchi.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications, has reported that there have been 93,081 cases of telecom scams reported nationwide so far, indicating an alarming rise in cases of communication fraud in India.

Fraudulent communications include information about bank account, payment wallet, SIM card, gas or electricity connection, KYC update, expiration or deactivation, impersonation as a government official or relative, sextortion and many more.

The telecom ministry said it has received 93,081 requests so far through calls, SMS and WhatsApp. Of these, 60,730 were received through calls, 29,325 through WhatsApp and 3,026 through SMS, respectively. The highest number of requests came from the state of Uttar Pradesh (10,392 cases).

So far, 89,970 cases reported through 80,209 calls, 5,988 WhatsApps and 997 SMSes have been successfully resolved. A total of 2,776 mobile phones, 997 headers and 5,988 WhatsApp accounts have been blocked so far. The state (Licensed Service Areas (LSAs) with the highest number of cases resolved or actions taken is Andhra Pradesh (13,380 cases).

McAfee, a renowned cybersecurity company, conducted its first ‘Global Scam Study’ in 2023. The study revealed that Indians spend around 1.8 hours per week identifying scam messages and receive an average of 12 scams or fake messages every day. A total of 82% of Indians have been duped by fake messages. McAfee reported that around 64% fake job notifications/offers and 52% bank alert messages are the most prevalent types of scams.

According to McAfee’s report, 83% of voice scam victims and about half of Indian respondents said they couldn’t tell the difference between a real voice and a clone. A total of 49% of respondents felt that the scam messages were very clean, extremely convincing and even contained personal information, making them harder to detect.

On August 28, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released a consultation paper outlining some changes to its anti-spam laws. The move comes as the regulator struggles to cope with a surge in fraudulent and unwanted calls and SMS messages in India.

What to do if you think you’ve been defrauded or lost money to financial fraud?

• Report any issues by calling the Cybercrime Helpline 1930.

• Visit the website https://www.cybercrime.gov.in.

• Report any suspected fraudulent communication received in the last 30 days by visiting the “CHAKSHU” portal at https://sancharsaathi.gov.in/sfc/Home/sfc-complaint.jsp

• Visit the ‘Sanchar Saathi’ portal, a citizen-centric initiative of the Department of Telecommunications, to report and trace the complaint.

• File a complaint at the nearest police station.

Precautions

• Never click on unidentified or questionable links.

• Block dangerous/risky hyperlinks in text messages, social media posts and web browser tabs.

• Use reputable and trusted scam protection software and applications.

• Do not immediately follow instructions from an unknown person on the phone or online.

• Always think and check twice before taking any action and sharing or putting any OTP, PIN, password, documents or important personal information.